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You say that "inspectors are so concerned over the rush to exploit the world's biggest higher education market that they have announced plans for a review of the standard of UK degree courses offered in China" ("China partners face audit", March 11).

The development of partnerships in China has been rapid over the past five years. About one third of UK institutions have links with organisations in China and many more have recruited students from there.

This led us to conclude that it would be appropriate to conduct an audit of some of them. Our circular makes no reference to "concerns" about "a rush to exploit the world's biggest higher education market".

Peter Williams
Quality Assurance Agency